Navaratnas Variant

Play With 6 Workers, 8 Dice, And Upgraded Special Yields

After having played the basic version for one or more games, you can opt for the "Navaratnas" version for advanced players (English "The Nine Gems"). Here, the following modifications apply:

You can activate all 3 inactive workers. So you may play with up to 6 workers. You play with the back of your Kali statue and you may store only up to 8 dice.

You play on the back of your province board. Here also, special yields are printed on the edge of the province board, which you can connect to your road network. However, these are only minor yields, but you can improve them during the course of the game.

At the beginning of the game, mix the brown yield tiles. Each player randomly picks one, reveals it and puts it on one of the two possible spaces on his province board. You decide which of the special yields on the board you wish to cover.

At the moment when you connect them, the brown yield tiles give you a special yield that depends on the progress you have made so far in a specific field:

1 fame point for each tile in your province that has at least 1 market

1 fame point for every 3 river spaces you have advanced so far (the starting space doesn't count)

1 money per building in your province

2 money for each yield tile you have connected

2 fame points for each bend that you have built in your province

2 money per upgrade you have made so far

1 fame point for each active worker you have

Now place the remaining brown yield tiles as well as all other yield tiles face up on the buildings of the same color on the gameboard. You may get them during the game to enhance the special yield you can get from your province board.

The white, yellow, and red yield tiles give you special yields as follows:

Dice (1 or 2 of specific colors or of your choice)

1 boat move (onto the next unoccupied river space)

Money

1 building upgrade

Karma (1 or 2)

Attention! Always score for the province tile first before you take the special yield. You may not move or cover yield tiles already placed on the board.

There are 2 ways to obtain additional yield tiles during the game:

a) When you are at the dancer Every time you place a worker at the dancer and give up one value-2 die of any color, you may take 2 dice of your choice from the supply and choose any yield tile. You immediately put this tile face up on an (as yet) unoccupied space of the corresponding color on your province board.

Different from the basic game, here you earn the yield not immediately but only when you have connected the yield tile to a road on your province board.

b) When you have fewer active workers than other players If, for example, you have a total of 4 active workers, but at least one of the other players already has 5 workers at his disposal, you get 1 yield tile in the fifth stage of the current round if it were your turn to place a worker but you don't have any left. You immediately decide on which unoccupied space of your board you want to place the new yield tile (face up and color-matching).

If at least one other player even has 2 more active workers than you, you take another yield tile and place it as if it were your turn to place a worker but you can't place any for the second time.

Attention! You may only take yield tiles in a color for which you still have space available on your board. You may also refrain from taking a yield tile.

For Mixed Player Groups

For advanced players who play with a group that includes beginners, it is also possible to play with handicaps.

In this case, the advanced players use the Navaratnas side of their board and the back of their Kali statue, whereas the beginners use the basic side of their board and the front of their Kali statue.

You can have up to 5 workers. The yellow, red, and brown yield tiles stay in the box. You play according to the basic rules and use only the white yield tiles for which you get a yield only at the dancer (as in the basic game) to use immediately.

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